Mr Fuller,

Not being a native english speaking people, I couldn't find better words to
express my message to you than by copying below the message Mr Leyne sent
you. It perfectly suits my thinking about what is going on about Interbase.
I second every word of it.

I'll only add this, sincerely said, without any gratuitous animosity and
without any other intent than saying what we think and not injuring :

I have, my company has, and my customers will have for sure strong concerns
about you and your team ability to handle this issue as long as you'll hide
behind 'lawyers' issues unsolved after SIX monthes. There are no doubts this
feeling will quickly spread to the Inprise/Borland company as a whole.

I hope you can show all of us how a CEO of such an important international
company can positively react and solve problems, even without the help of
your lawyers. This may well be the time to take daring decisions, on your
own. By *really* releasing the code to Interbase, you still may make a move
with an incredible positive impact on our industry. This single move can pay
more in public recognition for Inprise/Borland than what Interbase may have
earned the company (if any, really) while badly marketed as a commercial
product along those very last years.

Looking forward your kind answer and undoubtly positive reaction,
Best Regards,

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Olivier Mascia T.I.P. Group SA
om@... www.tipgroup.com
Director, Chief Software Architect +32 65 401111

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leyne, Sean" <InterbaseArchitecture@...>
To: <dfuller@...>
Cc: "Interbase Discusion Group" <Interbase@...>;
<IB-Architect@egroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 7:14 PM
Subject: [IB-Architect] Open-Source Interbase


| Mr. Fuller.
|
| Based on my perception (and the perception of others I know) of how you,
| and your organization, have mishandled the entire Interbase product for
| the last 18 months, makes truly wonder how you became the CEO of the
| Borland/Inprise organization.
|
| First, you don't commit any real resources to product development and/or
| marketing. This results in most of the product group quitting. This
| sends a message to the entire IB community that you don't care at all
| about the product or the developers which use it. (For myself, I thought
| the product was dead and actively began investigating other solutions)
|
| Then, you announce that IB's going to open-source within six months.
| (For myself, I thought the product was now on life support -- I could
| not see how a complicated product like IB could be developed by a
| uninformed [relatively] community).
|
| Then, there the announcement that Ann and Paul will be part of the
| management team for the new company and with Jim Starkey taking a
| technological/consultative role. This addresses some of the concerns
| amonst the community and certainly envigorates ideas regarding the
| technical direction of the product. (Based on the management group, I
| not only decide to not write off IB but actually become very keen on
| where I see the product going)
|
|
| Here comes the enfuriating part!!!
|
| The developer/user community and myself has been building and eagerly
| waiting for the source, software deployment plans made.
|
| You have had SIX months (a lifetime in Internet years) to get this
| deployed, and as far as anyone can tell -- you've just haven't cared!!!
|
|
| The bottom line,
|
| You have a dead product (IB 5.6), you have an opportunity to extract
| some value for it.
|
| There is an excelent opportunity to exploit the growing open-source
| market, there are few competitors. But this is changing -- existing
| products are improving at internet speed and new products are appearing.
| This window is closing...
|
| Unless you get your act in gear and release the source TODAY -- to allow
| for the Cobalt announcement to proceed -- you will probably loose Ann,
| Paul, Jim and along with them, me and probably the rest of the IB
| community!
|
| As a community, we looking for real action and decision (not some meally
| mouth excuse about 'the lawyers').
|
| Sean Leyne
| Atkin & Associates